Railers fall on road to South

Saturday

Oct 12, 2013 at 12:13 AMOct 12, 2013 at 12:13 AM

By Mark SchnabelNewton Kansan

SALINA — The Newton High School football team gave Salina South too many short field drives to be able to survive, falling to the Cougars 40-13 Friday in Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League Division I play at Salina District Stadium.

South improves to 4-2, 4-1 in AV-CTL I play. Newton falls to 3-3, 2-3 in division play, knocking Newton out of the league race.

"Salina South is awfully good, and they are going to be able to take advantage of any mistakes you make," Newton coach Nate Wollenberg said. "Sometimes you learn from playing good teams. You learn what you need to get better at. I think we will get better. They beat Hutch last week. We know they are a good team. They beat Derby in week one. They lost a couple of games when they had some players out early in the season. This is a really good football team. We want to compete with teams like that. There were facets where we did. There are areas we need to work to get better at."

South was led by quarterback Justin Stonebreaker, who passes for 98 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns.

For Newton Jack Kingsley rushed for 65 yards and a touchdown and passed for 136 yards and a touchdown.

South was forced to punt its first possession. The Railers had blocked punts on its first two possessions, setting up a pair of short-field Cougar touchdown drives.

Newton got back in the game on a long strike from Kingsley to Bradley Million for 61 yards late in the first quarter. South came back with a drive, aided by a pass interference penalty, scoring on a 13-yard pass from Stonebreaker to Zach Nachbar. The PAT kick failed.

Newton tried a fake punt on its next possession, but the play lost a yard, giving South the ball at the Newton 29. The defense held South on downs, aided by a holding penalty.

On another drive aided by a Railer pass interference penalty, South scored with 45 seconds left in the half on a 15-yard pass from Stonebreaker to Nachbar. South was hit with a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct after the play, forcing Kevin Kraus to hit a 35-yard PAT kick.

Newton went three-and-out on its first series of the second half. Punter Drake Sturgeon's knee hit the ground fielding a low snap, giving South the ball on Newton's 13. Two plays later, Stonebreaker hit Mitch Roets for a touchdown pass. A 25-yard Newton punt and 24-yard Nachbar return put the ball on the Railer 16, setting up a three-yard Stonebreaker run.

Newton followed with its longest drive of the game, going from its own 24 to the South 29, where the Railers turned it over on a fumble. South got to the Newton 12, where Stonebreaker was sacked on fourth down.

Newton finally found the endzone again on a three-yard Kingsley run with 3:05 remaining. Newton drove the ball 71 yards on 10 plays, taking 5:13 to do it. Newton was aided by a South pass interference penalty. Newton also converted on a fourth-and-12 play to keep the drive alive.

"They have very good players and a very good scheme," Wollenberg said. "We had a few opportunties that we didn't capitalize on — some things where we may have made a mistake, but a lot of it goes to Salina South."

Newton opens district play at 7 p.m. Friday at Emporia, which fell to 3-3 after a 21-17 loss to Topeka.

"We know that's when the second season start," Wollenberger said. "It's a good district. We're looking forward to the challenge, trying to have the opportunity to extend our season. Emporia has a good team. They play very good competition. They are a solid group."